The first year of his permanent sobriety, Matt felt like shit. It wasn’t for lack of recovery effort. His pleasure neurotransmitters that had been hijacked by alcohol just took a year or so to adjust to his sobriety. Even after that year, Matt dealt with secondary addictions as he worked to understand the underlying causes of his alcoholism. A lot of people complain of a joyless recovery and transference of addiction. It is both common and baffling. In this episode, Sheri and Matt address it all.
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Matt, there may be gender differences in parenting, but I am a woman and feel the same way that you do about spending time with my kids.. You went from talking about how difficult it is for you to relax/have fun/ take a break from your secondary (or primary) addictions. Then you talk about parenting and how you feel badly about not wanting to spend time with your kids, how your wife is better at it, how there is a gender difference. I think the reason that it is hard to hang with kids is it involves FUN, you have to shift your focus off of personal accomplishment (and surrender all of the anxiety you have for doing so) .
Ooooh. I think you’re right, Dawn. Thank you for listening and for your reaction.